


ginger, spice, and everything nice

by rutabega129



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 09:04:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rutabega129/pseuds/rutabega129
Summary: Jesse makes Beca take a cooking class with him much to her chagrin. Good thing the teacher is really cute.





	ginger, spice, and everything nice

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt from user chakram12 "Beca takes a cooking class and is quite taken with her instructor, Chloe."
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for the prompt.
> 
> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine

“Why am I here?” Beca whines as she and Jesse enter a classroom on a Friday evening. The room resembled more a chemistry lab but instead of the usual chemistry equipment like beakers and burners, there were stove tops and ovens with bowls and utensils. There weren’t many stations and the classroom was filled with at least 8 other people.

“Because,” Jesse begins patiently and drags them to a counter top near the front. “We’re grown ass adults whose only culinary skills are pressing the timer on the microwave.”

Beca rolls her eyes and then scowls at the lack of seats. Was she supposed to stand the entire time? “Who needs culinary skills when there’s take out? And dude, where are the fucking chairs?”

Jesse rolls his eyes as well. “Beca, we’re going to be cooking the entire time, there’s no sitting in cooking.”

Beca looks around incredulously, the only thing she saw were a couple of stools in the back of the room. “For an entire hour? Are you kidding me, Swanson?” She goes to get one of the stools but Jesse pulls her by the tail of her plaid shirt.

“Suck it up, Mitchell,” he says and throws a folded apron at her. “You already agreed to do this with me and no take backsies! And plus, I got a great deal on groupon for these classes.”

Beca thinks of taking the knife on the counter and chucking it at him. But he was right, she did agree. They never back out on an agreement if it meant so much to the other person. They’ve established that in their friendship a long time ago and it always stuck. Even if it was as stupid as a cooking class. Jesse did have a point though. They really did need to learn how to cook. It’d be better for their budget and health.

“Fine but if I chop my finger off or burn my hair or something, I’m going to murder you.” Jesse laughs at Beca’s idle threat as they both unravel their aprons and put them on. Beca was just finishing tying the string when a young woman with red hair and the bluest eyes she’s ever seen (so blue she could see them from where she was standing) walks in from the door in the front of the room.

“Welcome everyone to Cooking Basics! If everyone can find a station, two per each please.” Her voice had an extra perkiness that Beca would normally find annoying if the woman wasn’t so unbelievably gorgeous. Beca was pretty sure she was drooling. There was a little scuffle as the rest of the class found their stations.

“I’m Chef Chloe,” the woman began. “I’m the sous-chef at The Holy Grille, and I’ll be teaching you some cooking skills for beginners. Now, before we begin, a little trivia, does anyone know what the proper temperature is for a rare steak?” Chloe smiles as she looks around the room and Beca is tempted to raise her hand so Chloe addresses her even though she has no idea what the answer is. Also rare? Might as well take a bite out of the live cow.

Chloe doesn’t seem deterred at the lack of participants and most of the class just shrugs. “It’s 130 degrees fahrenheit and it should look very red with a cool center,” Chloe says and the class nods. “Okay before we get to the actual cooking, let me go over some safety regulations.” She spends the next few minutes showing them where the fire extinguisher is, the fire exits, the first aid kit, and what to do if there’s a grease fire. Beca listens with rapt attention to a point Jesse actually kicks her.

“Ow!” She hisses as him as she watches Chloe put on her own apron. “What the hell?”

“You’re drooling,” Jesse says smirking and nods towards Chloe’s direction. “Aren’t you glad you decided to come now?”

“Fuck you,” Beca says but doesn’t deny it. She’s going to stab Jesse sometime during the class, she knows it.

Once done with all the safety precautions, Chloe stands behind the front and center station and smiles at the class. “So this is a 4 course class, I will be teaching you how to make 3 separate meals along with basic cooking skills. We’re first going to start with some easy and basic knife skills. We’ll be making pasta for one of our dishes and we’ll be making the sauce first.” Chloe takes out one of the bigger knives from the knife block and shows it to the class. “This is a chef’s knife and it’s the best knife to use for cutting vegetables like onions and carrots as well as meat.” She grabs one of the onions from the bowl in front of her and then presses a button on a camera that is on a tripod angled toward the cutting board. The screen behind her projects the camera’s live feed of Chloe’s cutting board so the class can see what she’s doing. She goes on showing the proper way to cut and then explains to them how to sauté the onion.

Beca’s mouth becomes very dry when she sees Chloe’s hands on the screen. She has _very _nice hands with slender fingers and short nails. Beca could also see the remnants of healed burns here and there. The hazards of being a chef, she surmises.

“Dude, you do know this isn’t a porno, right?” Jesse says from the corner of his mouth as he watches Chloe show the class the proper way to cut an onion.

Beca glares at him. “You do know I have knife, right?”

“Okay, so basically for beginners, there’s pretty much no way around crying while cutting an onion,” Chloe says as she puts her knife down on the cutting board. The class groans and laughs. The onion she just chopped is now in tiny uniform pieces waiting to be sautéed. “The most important thing you need to know is to make sure your knife is always sharp and never dull. There’s nothing more dangerous than a dull knife.” Beca looks at her own knife and touches the edge of it lightly to feel the sharpness. She’s hoping the class provided sharp knives. She didn’t think bleeding in front of Chloe would be the greatest first impression.

“So if everyone can grab an onion and start chopping it the way I just showed you, I’ll be walking around the class observing. Once you’ve chopped all the onion, heat your pan on the stove top and add a little olive oil. Sauté your onions until they’ve become very fragrant and are translucent in color, like this.” Chloe’s pan has already been heated and she adds the oil and moves it around the pan. Beca watches in awe as Chloe adds the onion and starts sautéing it with ease. “And you’ll know it’s done when it starts looking like this. Keep moving the pan in a rotating motion so the onions don’t burn. And of course you can also use a spatula. Go ahead and start cutting your onion.” Chloe turns off her burner and removes the pan from the heat.

Beca grabs an onion form the bowl in the middle of their station and stares at it, not quite sure what to do. She did pay attention to when Chloe was showing them the basic cuts but seeing and doing things were completely different. And plus, her mom got her one of those easy chopper thingys to chop all her vegetables. It was currently still in its box unused in her and Jesse’s shared apartment.

She watches Jesse as he starts to chop his onion and laughs when his eyes immediately start tearing.

“God this sucks,” Jesse complains as he tries to emulate what Chloe had done earlier. He wipes at his eyes with the sleeve of shirt.

“I hear rubbing them makes it worse,” Beca points out but still hadn’t made attempt to cut her own onion.

“And how are we doing over here?” Chloe’s voice comes from behind Beca. Beca nearly drops her knife when she sees Chloe about an inch from here. “Haven’t started yet?” She says in amusement.

“Uhhh.” Beca wants to punch herself. “Um, no I got it.” She brings the knife down hard on the onion, cutting it unevenly. Her eyes already start to sting.

“Oh, a little too rough there,” Chloe points out. “You want to use the weight of knife to chop it and not force it down. There’s more chance of injury if you did what you just did.”

“Yeah, Becaw,” Jesse taunts and Beca glares at him with daggers.

Chloe giggles and it’s like music to Beca’s ears. “May I?” She asks pointing to Beca’s hands and she nods, not quite trusting her voice. Chloe was even more beautiful up close. “Oh you’re a lefty, this going to be a little more difficult.” She smiles at Beca and moves her hands on top of hers, guiding them. She maneuvers them to be a little more comfortable with their different dexterity. “Like this.”

Chloe’s hands are warm and she smells amazing, Beca thinks. Even with the lingering smell of onion in the entire room, Chloe’s perfume wafts towards Beca with how close she is. “Have we met before?” Chloe asks once she shows Beca the proper way to cut the onion without chopping her fingers off. “Have you ever been to my restaurant? You look really familiar.”

Beca swallows and opens her mouth to try to speak. She realizes she hasn’t said one coherent thing to Chloe since she came over. “Um, yeah, I mean like once? It’s a little too pricey for me for to be a frequent visitor.” Beca winces at what she just said when Chloe raises her eyebrow. “I mean, not that you work at a snobby place, I’m just like a starving artist.” Jesse laughs behind her.

Chloe smiles and leans her hand against their counter top and tilts her head curiously at Beca. “So what do you do?”

Beca smiles back and breathes a sigh of relief that she hadn’t offended Chloe. “Me and this douchebag,” she points her thumb at Jesse, “work at The Blue Note bartending and waitressing. And we’re also the house band. Well, duo since it’s just the two of us.”

Realization dawns on Chloe’s face. “That’s where I’ve seen you before! My friends and I go there every once in a while and I’ve seen you play. You have an amazing voice.”

Beca’s entire face blushes. “Thanks.”

Chloe grins at her and looks down at her cutting board. “You better start sautéing those so we can get to the next part of the lesson.” She winks before she heads back to the front of the class.

“Dude,” Jesse says when Chloe starts telling the class the next step. “How do you have so much game when you’re this fucking awkward?”

Beca throws a cooked onion at him.

\--

They spend the rest of the class making marinara sauce for their pasta as Chloe observes and helps out the students. Beca notices that Chloe does seem to spend a longer time with her which she both enjoys and hates because she gets nervous and ends up fucking up whatever she’s doing. Who knew you could boil water the wrong way for pasta? Beca’s spaghetti ended up being overcooked and she had to start over. Jesse couldn’t stop laughing but Chloe wouldn’t stop smiling.

Once they’ve completed their pasta dish, Chloe tastes test every one of them. The class had various states of success and Chloe offers her critique of what could be improved. Beca’s sauce was a tad bit salty and her noodles were undercooked since Beca was scared she was going to overdo them the second time around. Jesse’s actually turned out pretty perfect and he jokingly rubs it in Beca’s face.

Beca found that she didn’t care that her dish was subpar because Chloe was pretty much stealing glances at her the entire lesson. They all cleaned up and packed up their pasta in the little to-go containers the class provided.

“Okay, that was a good first lesson. Next week, I’ll be showing you how to mash potatoes and cook a steak the right way. Hope you guys had fun tonight and I’ll see you next week!” Chloe smiles as the class starts leaving. Beca dawdles with her things, making a show of folding the apron back on to the counter top.

“Beca, just tell me to wait for you outside, you’re so annoying,” Jesse says shaking his head. “Go get some, god knows it’s been long enough. I think you need to replace the batteries in your vibrator.”

“Dude! Go, before I actually stab you.”

“Bye, Chef Chloe!” Jesse yells obnoxiously before heading outside.

Chloe laughs and waves. “Bye, Jesse!” Beca groans as she watches Jesse leave. “So, are you two dating?” Beca whips her head around to find Chloe, again, right next to her.

“What? Me and Jesse? Ew, no we’re just friends and roommates. Practically siblings,” Beca babbles. “We’ve know each other for years.”

Chloe nods and reaches over towards Beca’s face. “You have a little sauce on your cheek,” she says and wipes her thumb across it. Beca is rooted to the spot and her face feels very hot. She nearly falls over when Chloe licks the sauce off her thumb. “So, you two are musicians?” Chloe inquires as if she didn’t just turn Beca on with that single action.

“Um,” Beca swallows. “Not really, it’s just a side thing to make ends meet. I want to be a music producer and he wants to score movies or something nerdy.” Beca can’t stop staring into Chloe’s eyes and she notices that she’s moving closer to her. The space between gets smaller and Beca has no idea what she’s even saying anymore. Not when Chloe keeps looking at her like that.

“That’s amazing,” Chloe practically whispers. “Maybe I can watch you play again and then afterwards I can cook you dinner?” This time when Chloe reaches over, it’s to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Beca’s ear.

“I think I’d like that very much,” Beca manages to get out. “I really enjoyed your class, Chef Chloe.”

Chloe’s smile wrinkles her nose. “Thanks! Can I walk you out?” Beca smiles back and nods and they start to head out. “Oh wait,” Chloe says stopping them and then reaches into her bag for a pen. “I think you need this.” She takes a hold of Beca’s right hand and starts writing on her palm with the pen. Beca tries to stop from shaking when Chloe holds her hand. “Because I definitely want to hear from you before our next lesson.”

Beca looks down at Chloe’s phone number written in neat handwriting on her palm. She also drew a smiley face wearing a chef’s hat. “You’re so weird,” Beca comments when she sees the drawing.

“Yeah,” Chloe says grinning as they continue to walk out the door. Jesse was waiting at the corner for them with a knowing smile. “But I think you like that.”

Beca grins back. “I really really do.”


End file.
